Google Cleared of UK Privacy Breach by ICO

2nd Aug 15:43

Google has been cleared by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) of collecting "meaningful personal details" when private Wi-Fi data was intercepted as it recorded images for its Street View service earlier in the year.

The ICO said that they were confident that Google's Street View vehicles had only collected fragments of information and that this could not be linked to any specific person.

Google says that the interception of data was entirely unintentional and was caused by the accidental inclusion of experimental code in the software used by the Street View cars.

The ICO says that on the basis of samples of the records collected in Britain, that it is unlikely that Google will have captured any significant amounts of personal data.

The privacy watchdog stated, "there is also no evidence as yet that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment."

But the ICO has warned that it was still wrong of Google to have collected the information in the first place and the watchdog says it will remain vigilant.